Texans Like Their Pickups Big, Too

Everything, they say, is bigger in Texas. When General Motors’ North America President Mark Reuss made his first visit to the State Fair of Texas in late September, he quickly learned that the maxim certainly applies to commanding the attention of the Lone Star State’s truck buyers. Winding his way toward GM’s exhibit, he passed Toyota Motor’s truck display, where an eye-catching 4,000-plus-pound Tundra dangled 50 feet overhead. Nearby was a mechanical bull bucking amid a collection of Chrysler Group’s Ram pickups with banners trumpeting its Truck of Texas award. Finally Reuss was confronted by a towering oil derrick with a Ford Motor F-Series spinning atop with decals reading “Best selling truck.” “Everybody drives pickups and loves pickups here,” says an impressed Reuss. “It feels bigger than life—and it is.”

Wooing Texans is a crucial business for truck makers because the state is the largest market for new pickups in the U.S., with the trucks representing one in five vehicles sold in the state last year, according to researcher Polk. That compares with about one in eight nationally. More large pickups were purchased in Texas last year than the next three largest truck markets—California, Oklahoma, and Florida—combined. “There’s more at stake in Texas in terms of volume and opportunities,” says Jessica Caldwell, an analyst with auto researcher Edmunds.com. “It’s shaping up to be quite the battle.” (Trucks make up a larger share of North Dakota’s vehicle sales, but volume is much lower.)